[Plugin] ClothWorks v1.1.1 - 3 April 2018

[Anton_S]

ClothWorks
ClothWorks is a cloth simulation extension for SketchUp, for draping cloth and wires over components of any shape and size and also for simulating curtains and flags.

Important Licensing Note:
On Mac OS X, there is an issue where licence deactivates and reactivating it increases the number of seats taken even though only one is used. In case you're experiencing such issue, please update to SketchUcationTools v3.1.5.

In case your licence seats become full, refer to Known Issue section, the 3rd page in Licensing Manual on resetting your license.

In case you haven't received your purchased licence, send an email to clothworks@sketchucation.com and include your SketchUcation username and the email address you used for purchasing in the description.


Workflow functionalities include:

• Simple Grid and Smart Grid for turning face or a set of faces within a group/component into a grid of faces, with a desired padding. An additional Purge Edges option removes the generate grid. These options are for manipulating cloth.
• Split Edges for turning an edge or a set edges within a group/component to segmented edges with a specified maximum spacing. An additional Weld Edges merges the split edges. These options are for manipulating wires.
• Loop Subdivision and Laplacian Smoothing for increasing resolution and smoothening the resulting, simulated cloth (meanwhile preserving texture UVs).
• Drape and Undrape for resetting and renewing cloth, rope, and pin orientations. This option is, particularly, useful for when changing cloth texture material.
• Record and Export for recording simulation and then exporting the final animation into a sequence of images, SKP files, OBJ files, and various other formats. A third-party software, such as MakeAVI, can be used to combine a sequence of exported frame images into a video file.

To get started, refer to ClothWorks Manual

You can also check out the detailed tutorials below:

Video

Video

Video

Video

Video

Video

Video

Requirements

• Window 7 or later / Mac OS X 10.9+
• SketchUp 2016 or later
• SketchUcationTools v3.1.5+, for licensing and unlocking features

Installation Instructions
ClothWorks can be installed via SketchUcationTools extension or manually, from ExtensionStore.

Refer to the steps below for installing manually:

1. Download ams_ClothWorks_vX.Y.Z.rbz.
2. Navigate to your plugins folder (see Extension Folder Location section for details).
3. Extract ams_ClothWorks_vX.Y.Z.rbz and copy the content into the plugins folder, so that the plugins folder contains ams_ClothWorks folder and ams_ClothWorks.rb file:
   …\SketchUp\Plugins\
   
   ams_ClothWorks
   ams_ClothWorks.rb

Uninstallation Instructions
Refer to the steps below to uninstall the extension:

1. Close SketchUp.
2. Navigate to your plugins folder (see Extension Folder Location section for details).
3. Delete ams_ClothWorks folder and ams_ClothWorks.rb file.

Extension Folder Location
On Windows, the plugins folder is located at, either:

• %appdata%\SketchUp\SketchUp 20##\SketchUp\Plugins
• %programdata%\SketchUp\SketchUp 20##\SketchUp\Plugins

On Mac OS X, the plugins folder is located at:

~/Library/Application Support/SketchUp 20##/SketchUp/Plugins

Licensing
Licensing unlocks four features:

1. Loop Subdivision – smoothens cloth by increasing resolution (meanwhile preserving texture UVs)
2. Laplacian Smoothing – smoothens cloth by transforming vertices around
3. Movable Pins – allows transforming pinned cloth while in simulation
4. Smart Grid – generates proper grids for complex faces

ClothWorks licensing depends on SketchUcationTools, version 3.1.5 or later. The latest version of the extension must be installed for licensing to work properly!

With SketchUcationTools (v3.1.5+) installed, a licence can be obtained and/or activated by accessing:
(Menu) Extensions → ClothWorks → License…

Within the licensing dialog:

1. Click on the Obtain Licence button to purchase your licence. This will navigate you to SketchUcation PayPal purchasing page. Ensure to specify your email address correctly, so that the purchased licence file is shipped to the correct address.
2. Upon receiving your licence, download the file and save it to your computer.
3. To activate your licence, click on the Validate Licence button and select your purchased licence file. This will unlock all the features.

At an any given time, a purchased licence can be activated on up to three devices.

For detailed instructions on activating your licence, please refer to ClothWorks Licensing manual.

For support, or in case you haven't received your purchased licence, send an email to clothworks@sketchucation.com.

Important note: Verify that simulation works, and doesn’t crash, prior to purchasing a licence.

Known Issues and Limitations

• Applying intense forces to a drag-enabled cloth object will have the cloth object explode. In case that happens, either reset simulation, which will restore the original layout of the cloth, or stop simulation and then use Toggle Draped option to restore the original layout of the cloth.
• Smart Grid option only works with faces that are quads, triangles, and/or pure circles. To apply Smart Grid to complex faces, first, manually divide faces into quads and/or triangles and then follow with Smart Grid option.
• Avoid using the undo command post simulation, as each frame of simulation is wrapped in its own operation. Instead, to undo cloth layout, use Toggle Draped option, accessible from ClothWorks toolbar or menu.
• Self-collision is not perfect and may allow self-overlaps. In case self-overlaps occur, applying smoothing options (post simulation), especially Laplacian smoothing, can eliminate overlaps.

Important Notes

• Prior to starting simulation, ensure that Outliner and Components inspectors are closed or collapsed. When these dialogs are open (or expanded), there tends to be an extreme lag.
• Increasing update timestep, say from 1/420 to 1/180, makes cloth weaker. If possible, avoid increasing the update timestep. On the counter-note, decreasing the update timestep, say from 1/420 to 1/1200, makes the cloth significantly stiffer.
• After performing simulation and finalizing the draping (that is subdividing and texturing), you can reduce file size by clearing drape history:
  
  1. Select draped cloth(s)
  2. Access (Context Menu) ClothWorks → Cloth(s) → Clear History
  Purging unused definitions can reduce file size too:
  
  1. Open (Menu) Window → Ruby Console
  2. Execute Sketchup.active_model.definitions.purge_unused

Dealing with Collision Detection

• If self-collision is turned on for a cloth object, its thickness must not be greater than its grid spacing; greater thickness can affect the integrity of the cloth.
• To prevent collision overlaps when draping over a collider, reduce gravity, increase viscosity, and/or increase thickness of the collider.

[Box]

I guess I'm too quick, it's not showing up in sketchucation tools.
Ok, you can download it manually from the Extension store but not from within Sketchup.

[fredo6]

Anton,

I watched the videos...

Simply stunning, really...!

Congratulation for this masterpiece of work.

Fredo

[jiminy-billy-bob]

\o/

[Box]

After just a few minutes with it, Brilliant, bloody brilliant.

[Rich O Brien]

After just a few minutes with it, Brilliant, bloody brilliant.

Pretty amazing alright! I love the smoothing and subdivision. You can work quite easily with low-medium poly cloths and then up the resolution.

[juju]

Installation Instructions
ClothWorks can be installed via SketchUcationTools extension or manually, from ExtensionStore.

Refer to the steps below for installing manually:

1. Download ams_ClothWorks_vX.Y.Z.rbz.
2. Navigate to your plugins folder (see Extension Folder Location section for details).
3. Extract ams_ClothWorks_vX.Y.Z.rbz and copy the content into the plugins folder, so that the plugins folder contains ams_ClothWorks folder and ams_ClothWorks.rb file:
   …\SketchUp\Plugins\
   
   ams_ClothWorks
   ams_ClothWorks.rb

Uninstallation Instructions
Refer to the steps below to uninstall the extension:

1. Close SketchUp.
2. Navigate to your plugins folder (see Extension Folder Location section for details).
3. Delete ams_ClothWorks folder and ams_ClothWorks.rb file.

Extension Folder Location
On Windows, the plugins folder is located at, either:

• %appdata%\SketchUp\SketchUp 20##\SketchUp\Plugins
• %programdata%\SketchUp\SketchUp 20##\SketchUp\Plugins

On Mac OS X, the plugins folder is located at:

> Library > Application Support > SketchUp 20## > SketchUp > Plugins

Do the regular extension installation/uninstallation functions of SU2018pro not work, ie. via Extension Manager?

[Rich O Brien]

Do the regular extension installation/uninstallation functions of SU2018pro not work, ie. via Extension Manager?

Works fine.

[Anton_S]

Juju, it's not yet at official ExtensionManager, but will be there if soon.

[kenancakir]

Thank you, you did a great job.. I installed it on sketchup 2017 and works fine..

[Dave R]

Oh boy! This is cool!

[Rich O Brien]

Oh boy! This is cool!

Think of all your lovely tables covered with a dirty table cloth

[Dave R]

Oh boy! This is cool!

Think of all your lovely tables covered with a dirty table cloth

Indeed! This was my first attempt. Rendering in KT now.

1930s Streamline.png

[pilou]

Bravo to Anton!

[nlipovac]

Anton, you deliver it as promised! It looks great.
I was wondering will v2 comes with something like force modifier in Blender,
for pillows and similar?

[boofredlay]

Bravo!

[Frederik]

Congratulation! This sure is a great plugin...!

I went ahead an purchased a license...
Not primary because I believe I have that much use of this plugin, but because I also want to support plugin developers...

15,00 USD is a a bargain for such a great plugin, however, I ended up paying 23,37 USD for this plugin...?!? Why...???

The VAT in Denmark is 25%, but that should give a final price of 18,75 USD...
Why should I pay the remaining 4,62 USD...???

[boofredlay]

I am seeing the same thing.

Click Obtain License and see $15 for the plugin.
Click Buy This and see $19 for the plugin.
Then get $23.37 which is $19 plus 23% sales tax (Ireland).

[Rich O Brien]

It is showing the incorrect price on the buy page. Fixing now.

It is $19 if you are Premium not $15. Sorry about that.

VAT is applied if your PayPal account is not business verified. This is EU law to apply tax.

[boofredlay]

Thanks Rich.

[Anton_S]

Thank you all for comments and support! I greatly appreciate it. More tutorials are to come soon.

I was wondering will v2 comes with something like force modifier in Blender, for pillows and similar?

Version 2 will include these. But in between, the plan is to:

1. Improve cloth collision algorithm, so that cloth doesn't overlap itself.
2. Add multithreading - we must use most of the processors resources.

[solo]

Awesome.

Just purchased, looking forward to multi-thread support.

[db11]

Congrats Anton on a very impressive and useful plug-in. Look forward to trying it out.

[boofredlay]

Ever make a fort as a kid?
Loving this.

[Dave R]

Nice work Eric.

[faust07]

Hi, Anton. Impressive result. Congratulations and an awesome bow. Magic in SketchUp... I can only imagine the complexity of the internal calculations and processes. Besides the fantastically realistic falling and folding fabrics also perfect treatment of the textures. The dream would be to have such flexible surfaces also in MSPhysics...

[Hieru]

Thank you all for comments and support! I greatly appreciate it. More tutorials are to come soon.

I was wondering will v2 comes with something like force modifier in Blender, for pillows and similar?

Version 2 will include these. But in between, the plan is to:

1. Improve cloth collision algorithm, so that cloth doesn't overlap itself.
2. Add multithreading - we must use most of the processors resources.

That's great news and the plugin is looking awesome as-is!

For pillows I was thinking of a workaround technique using a similar approach to the clothing example that was shared a while back. Is there a clothing tutorial in the pipeline?

[Pixero]

Bought it. Now off to try it out....

Edit: Wohooo! It's soo fun.
How will I ever get any work done anymore.

[Box]

Hi, Anton. Impressive result.The dream would be to have such flexible surfaces also in MSPhysics...

My thoughts exactly, I look forward to the day when I can drop my balls into soft leather.
Here's a quick example of combining MSPhysics with Clothworks and a bit of SUbD hiding underneath.

[Rich O Brien]

I look forward to the day when I can drop my balls into soft leather.

You should write romantic novels